Labradors

[DBI78]

Hi please help I'm at my wits end. I have a 10 month old lab who bites constantly. Not aggressively but can hurt if he catches a bit hard. We have followed advise and consistently ignored it and moving away. We tried yelping and tapping nose gently but both seem to aggravate him so we ignore, leave room or turn away or take him out the room. It's been 8 months now and it's still constant. It's when he greets, when we stroke him, play with him, groom him. He also does it to tell us to stop say if we are moving him or putting halter on. Any ideas to stop this? He's a bit of an anxious dog we are not sure why we have a consistent routine, I'm home a lot and we use positive reinforcement as training. My husband tried a bit of dominence training but we didn't feel it helped so stopped. Thanks

Hi there. I think if you post in the doghouse board you will get more responses. I am not really sure of any advice to help you myself but I am sure someone will.

I’m not surprised tapping his nose aggravated him and forget trying to dominate him. What on earth were you thinking?

If he’s a bit anxious, then you need to keep calm with him. Don’t excite him in any way. When handling him for grooming etc., speak softly and have treats ready to reward him.

Anything that results in the biting should be looked at. For example playing with him. What are you doing? Train him to bring a ball back and drop it at your feet. He’s a retriever, so this should be easy and with this there’s no chance of biting. If he bites when you stroke him, then don’t stroke him.

To be fair biting isn’t unusual, Labradors are inclined to bite but you can stop them. Change your entire way of dealing with him. Softly, softly is the best way. Keep calm, keep him calm. Reward him with treats when he’s gentle and compliant.

Get your self on to the Facebook dog training advice and support. They have a specific unit on this. Nipping is natural, don't yelp, don't tap on nose , don't try domination. Try distraction and prevention. But loads of tips in that Facebook group.

So yes, the super calm advice is good. But also wanted to let you know that at 8 months my lab was still biting, drawing blood quite often! He suddenly stopped at about 1 year and 6 months later hasn't bitten once since. I did lots of work on hand feeding, how to calm down etc, but I do think him growing up helped a lot too!

Why are you tapping your dog on the nose? All that teaches him is that hands and humans = pain, so of course he's going to use his mouth to defend himself.

@icedcoffees

Why are you tapping your dog on the nose? All that teaches him is that hands and humans = pain, so of course he's going to use his mouth to defend himself.

I said I tried it - briefly

I appreciate that, but unfortunately your dog now associates hands near his face with pain.

Many dogs who nip and bite beyond puppyhood do so because they've been treated a bit roughly by their owners - not necessarily intentionally but dogs need to be taught that hands near them means good things are coming, not that pain is coming.

The nose is the most sensitive part of the dogs face, what feels like a light tap to us can be pretty painful for them.

You need to work on lots of positive associations - gentle hands around him at all times, lots of praise when he licks instead of bites or mouthes etc.